Google Goes Mobile

With so much of the focus on developing a worthy rival to Apple's iPhone , it's no surprise that Google's attempt has been in focus. The tech titan launched its Nexus One in January, a phone dubbed as "a convergence point for mobile technology, apps and the Internet."

Maria Bartiromo caught up with Google's President of Global Sales Operations & Business Development Nikesh Arora at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting. Even though there has been a flood of new smartphones being launched, Arora said that all of this is "useful from a mobile data perspective." For Google and Arora, the mobile phone is "now a manifestation of what you do on your desktop."

Even its CEO Eric Schmidt has said that there are some four billion phones on the planet vs. just one billion PCs.

A trend that Google is clearly trying to capitalize on. Still, spending on mobile ads remains small. According to eMarketer, only $416M was spent on mobile ads in 2009 vs. the $22.4B spent online! And this is where Google derives most of its revenue. Arora said that as the global economy recovers, Google is "seeing a shift back towards online advertising."

Arora however, did not specifically address the question about Google's possible exit in China.

Instead, he reiterated the company's blog post on January 12th and added that since then, Google has been in discussions with the authorities about it's future in China.

The blog post said that Google is currently reviewing their business operations there and that may "well mean having to shut down Google.cn and potentially our offices in China."